Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin (17 March 1912-24 August 1987) was an American Civil Rights movement leader who was known as a socialist leader until his shift toward conservatism during the 1980s.

Biography
Bayard Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania on 17 March 1912, and his family was involved with the Civil Rights movement. In 1936, Rustin moved to Harlem, New York City to become a nightclub and stage singer, and he became a civil rights activist while there. Rustin also became involved with pacifists and Communist Party USA, which he left in 1941. In 1947, he took part in a freedom ride to challenge the segregation of interstate busing, and he helped to organize the SCLC with Martin Luther King, Jr. as its leader. Rustin helped with teaching King about nonviolence, as practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress in India, and he was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. After the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Rustin focused on economic issues, advocating the integration of labor unions. In 1972, he became the honorary chairman of the Socialist Party of America and led its social democratic successor group. Rustin would shift towards neo-conservatism in response to dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party's foreign policy, and he supported Ronald Reagan. During the 1980s, Rustin became a gay rights spokesperson, as he had been arrested for homosexual activity in 1953. He died of appendix perforation on 24 August 1987 after returning from a humanitarian mission to Haiti.